Wednesday, January 2, 2013

No Drones Here

After a drone was spotted at a Vikings game, rumors have
been “flying” around that it was a TSA drone. I just wanted to take this quick
opportunity to say that TSA does not use drones. I have been accused of
“droning” on and on before, but other than that, we’re drone free.

I would welcome miniature drones from an independent law enforcement authority, for example FBI or local police, flying through all areas of an airport, including behind the scenes areas of TSA and other airport personnel. They could help reduce instances of thefts by airport and TSA employees and pre-flight drinks by crew members, as well as identifying people engaged in dangerous activities between passing through security and boarding a plane.

DHS has alot of other Federal Law enforcement teams, i am sure one of them if not more were present at this game. I am pretty sure there have always been Federal Law enforcement officers at large gatherings, just not all visible.

TSA does have to issue waivers to fly within 3 nautical miles and 3,000 feet above ground level over any MLB, NFL, NCAA Division 1 football or NASCAR race. The exception is if you are in contact with a towered airport on approach or departure, no loitering. Once when I was operating an aircraft I heard a controller deny permission for a well known blimp to overfly a MLB game. The controller specifically used the words "TSA waiver" on the frequency and the blimp didn't have one (They were unaware of the game that day but had a waiver for the previous MLB series they covered and were still in the area). So TSA may not have drones but that would be interesting if it was in the airspace without TSA's permission. The precense of a VIPR team there makes this even more unlikely.